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W.C. Fields

W.C. Fields

The last movie he starred in, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), included a character he'd always wanted to have in one of his movies: a young woman (in this case his niece, played by Gloria Jean) who loved him unconditionally.

The lawyer Larsen E. Pettifogger in the comic strip "Wizard of Id" is drawn to look like him.

Through much of his early career, he was a silent juggler. It wasn't until he was in his mid-30s that be began to add verbal comedy to his act

Usually wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to his movies; the aliases he used ("Mahatma Kane Jeeves", "Otis Criblecoblis", etc.) for the writing credits came from the unusual names he encountered on the road, in his vaudeville days.

Was an accomplished amateur cartoonist. He often provided his own illustrations for his publicity material during his vaudeville days, and sent sketches and self-drawn holiday cards to his friends, all his life.



Was good friends with John Barrymore

When Louise Brooks was with the Ziegfeld Follies, she was often a drinking companion with W.C. Fields after the shows.

While stories of Fields' alcohol consumption (and the consequences thereof) were a regular part of his act, and he was rarely seen without a drink at hand, nobody could recall ever actually seeing him drunk, or out of control.

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